The End of Days
by Griddlebone
Summary: AU. Tommy finds himself suddenly thrust into a post-apocalyptic world that he doesn't understand. Can he find a way to get home, or is he trapped forever? A story told in small pieces.
1. Chapter 1

The first thing that registered in Tommy Oliver's brain was that it was damn hot. The second was that he was pretty sure he had swallowed a mouthful of sand. He felt groggy and disoriented well before he opened his eyes, aware of the unpleasant heat and little else. When he finally dared to crack open his eyes, it only confirmed that today was not going to be a good day. He was lying face-down on the ground, his head wrenched painfully to one side, with the sun beating fiercely down on him from overhead.

There was sand everywhere. He groaned and pushed himself up and onto his hands and knees. His vision swam alarmingly, but he managed to keep from falling over and within a few moments it had passed. He was finally beginning to think that he should wonder what on earth had happened to him when a shadow fell over him.

He started at the sudden realization that he was not as alone as he had assumed. Pushing himself into a crouch and hoping against hope that this would not come to a fight, he peered blearily in the direction the shadow had come from.

A humanoid figure wearing an overabundance of clothes, considering how hot it was, loomed over him. Whoever it was, it had made sure to put the sun behind it when it approached him; the light dazzled his eyes and made it next to impossible for him to make out any details of its appearance. But he saw one thing clearly: in its right hand, the figure held a bizarre looking weapon that was nonetheless very definitely a gun. And it was pointing that gun directly at Tommy's face.

"Oh, good," said a very familiar, very female voice. "You're awake."


	2. Chapter 2

The figure before him shifted slightly; Tommy craned his neck just a little bit more, finally able to glimpse his captor's face. "Trini?" he blurted, disbelieving. The voice had sounded familiar, but Trini was supposed to be participating in a student exchange program somewhere in Europe right now. Or so he had thought.

Her eyes went wide for a moment before she could regain her composure, the only sign that he had surprised her at all. "How do you know my name?" she demanded, her tone uncharacteristically harsh. "Are you a spy? I'll let you die quickly if you tell me the truth."

"I'm not a spy!" he protested frantically. "Do I _look_ like a spy? Trini, what's going on here? Is this some kind of game?"

"How do you know my name?" she reiterated, raising her voice slightly in emphasis.

"What do you mean? Don't you remember me?"

The hard look in her eyes told him that no, she did not.

Of all the ways he had ever thought he might die – being hit by a car, falling to his death in some sort of freak skydiving accident, being blown up in the middle of a battle against aliens bent on destroying the Earth – being shot in the face by Trini was not a possibility that he had ever seriously considered. She had always been the one person he could count on to be calm and rational, no matter what was going on. Not so much, now.

When she made no move to point that weapon of hers away from him, panic started to set in. If Trini wanted to kill him, _really_ wanted to kill him, he was dead meat. And he suddenly had no doubt that she would not hesitate to end his life if he didn't think fast. "Look," he said, trying to come up with something on the fly. "I must be mistaken. You're obviously not the Trini I know. This is all just some sort of misunderstanding. There's no need for violence."

That seemed to reach her... for all of a second.

"Why should I believe you?"

"I'm not armed," he pointed out. "And until a few seconds ago, I was unconscious. And I have no idea where on earth I am." As he spoke, he realized that he really didn't know where he was, nor how he had ended up there in the first place. The last thing he remembered was... pain shot through his head as soon as he tried to dredge up concrete details from before the last few minutes. He almost wished she would just shoot him already and get it over with.

"You are not a slaver, then?" she asked, finally relaxing enough to lower the gun.

"Slaves? What are you talking about?"

Her weapon went right back to where it had started, pointing right at his face. "Which of the raider lords pays you to spy for him?"

"None of them," he said with a sigh, glad he hadn't got his hopes up. There was absolutely no way this conversation was going to end well. "I don't even know what you're talking about."

She scowled mercilessly.

"I'm telling the truth!" he insisted. "You have to believe me!"

She glanced around quickly, obviously looking for some sort of proof that he wasn't what he said. Well, he thought, at least she wouldn't find anything like that. At least, he hoped she wouldn't.

"How did you get here?" she asked after a moment. Her tone was softer than it had been a minute ago; maybe that was a good sign. "And why are you dressed so strangely?"

"I haven't the foggiest," he answered honestly, wishing that she would point that gun away from him and keep it that way.

"The only footprints here are mine," she observed. She looked seriously confused, even a little bit scared. "So you can't have walked here. And if there had been an airship or a glider, I'd have seen it. Or heard reports of it."

"I don't remember an airship," he pointed out helpfully, though the casual mention made him curious. Why not just say 'plane'? It was pretty obvious that he had no parachute or other landing gear. "Actually, I don't remember much of anything from before you woke me up."

"You knew me."

"I, uh, I used to know someone that resembled you."

"And just happened to have my name."

"Look, I can't explain it, okay? But yes, I knew a girl named Trini and she looked an awful lot like you." He looked at her hard, trying to find any definitive physical differences between this Trini and the one he knew... and failing miserably. As far as he could tell, and despite her insistence to the contrary, this _was _Trini. The Trini he knew was a lot less mean, though.

"You can't expect me to just believe that this is all a big coincidence," she said.

"But it is!"

"You are the _worst_ spy I have ever met."

"That's because I'm not a spy!"

It seemed like it might finally be sinking in. "I almost believe you."

He groaned and let his eyes drift shut, wishing that she would either get this over with or at least give him a chance to get up and fight.

But it seemed luck was with him today, kind of. If he ignored the fact that he had woken up in the middle of a desert with no idea where he was, staring down the muzzle of a gun.

"I don't know if you're telling me the truth, but I can't just leave you out here to stir up more trouble. If I let you up, will you cooperate?"

He nodded slowly, hardly believing the sudden change of heart.

"I sent a signal as soon as I saw you. My partner will be along any moment now. If you try anything funny, you'll just be caught again," she warned. "And my partner won't be nearly as gentle as me."

"Got it," he assured her. He had no intention of failing to cooperate with her, not when it looked like she would be all too happy to blow his brains out at the slightest provocation. And especially not when she called this 'gentle'.

"Good. Then get up and start walking. We've got a lot of ground to cover before nightfall, and she," he got the impression that she meant the partner she had mentioned earlier, "won't be pleased if we're late getting to the designated campsite."

He was so relieved that he didn't even complain when she insisted on tying his hands and leading him like a prisoner. "You're not going to kill me then?"

She smiled grimly. "Not yet."


	3. Chapter 3

It was official: Tommy was not in Angel Grove anymore. Not anywhere even close. Where there should have been tall buildings and greenery and people, there was only an enormous expanse of empty desert. For the most part the land was level, punctuated by the occasional cactus or cluster of dried-up brush. Far in the distance he could make out the vague shapes of enormous sand dunes, and tall mesas and rocky up-thrusts.

There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask - namely, "where on Earth are we?" - but he followed Trini in silence. It was surprisingly easy to be content with the fact that he was alive and able to put one foot in front of the other, even though it was scorching hot and he wasn't used to walking so far or so fast over sand.

Oblivious to, or deliberately ignoring, his discomfort, Trini trudged on ahead. She set a good pace, which had Tommy struggling to keep up at times, but did not seem to mind letting him lag a little behind. In fact, so long as he followed at a reasonable pace and obeyed whatever orders she gave, his presence did not seem to bother her in the slightest, despite her earlier animosity. Not that the rope she'd tied his hands with gave him much choice in the matter.

He had already tried and failed to worm his way out of the bindings, and had come to the conclusion that he should just accept his fate and wait for a chance to get free. And hope that Trini didn't decide to shoot him in the meantime. But since she took care to give him a share of the water from her canteen every now and then and hadn't already offed or abandoned him, he had hope even for that.

It seemed like they had been walking for ages when he realized they were heading toward the closest of the rocky outcroppings, a large mass of reddish stone. As they drew gradually closer, he could make out a dark shape at the base of the mesa. A cave? Or something man-made?

He couldn't tell yet, but he had a feeling he was going to find out.

The sun was significantly lower in the sky by the time they finally arrived. Everything seemed tinged red and pink with the dusk, and Trini finally seemed ready to stop for the day. For his part, Tommy was glad just to be walking in the shadow of the huge monolith, instead of in the sun.

He had guessed right; they went right up to the dark spot, a cave cut into the stone, but they didn't go in. Instead, Trini turned to him and looked him over for a moment.

Finally: "If I untie you, are you going to behave?"

He nodded enthusiastically. He was ready to just collapse into the shade and sleep, but if she was offering him his freedom instead, he wasn't going to say no.

She scrutinized him carefully. "You had better not do anything stupid."

"I wasn't planning on it."

She effortlessly untied the knots that had so hopelessly bound him. He gratefully rubbed his hands to restore circulation that had been impeded for too long.

"You can have a look around if you like," she told him. "I don't think you can get into too much trouble here."

"I promise I won't get in any trouble at all," he assured her. It didn't look like she believed him. Her loss.

He glanced toward the gaping black hole in the rock, wondering if he should go in or stay outside.

"Here," Trini said, digging in her pack. She drew out something that looked suspiciously like a flashlight and handed it to him. "You'll want this. It's dark inside."

She was right, of course. After some fumbling he managed to get the thing turned on, and it emitted a light bright enough to see by. Thus prepared, he headed through the doorway. What he saw took him slightly aback.

The entire mesa had been hollowed out. Inside were a series of halls and small caverns, some stocked with preserved food and barrels of what he assumed was water, others obviously intended for sleeping or living. A staircase was cut into one wall, winding its way upward.

Tommy briefly explored all of it, pleased with his newfound freedom. But there was nothing of interest. There were no personal touches in any of the rooms, no decor beyond some utilitarian blankets and a white box with a red cross on it that he guessed was a first aid kit. There were no people. And there certainly was nothing that even came close to explaining what was going on.

For that, he would have to face Trini.

He found her sitting on the stoop outside the entrance, drinking out of her canteen and watching the scenery as if it were the most perfectly normal thing in the world to do.

"You were bluffing!" he accused. Not exactly what he had intended to start with, but it annoyed him to be duped so easily. "You don't have a partner, you were just trying to scare -"

He cut himself off when she gestured lazily toward the sky to his left. He let his gaze drift in that direction and saw, much to his surprise, a strange sort of flying contraption in the air. It looked like something out of an early science fiction novel, or maybe one of da Vinci's notebooks - like the impossible offspring of a hang-glider and a motor-powered airplane. If he squinted, he could make out the form of a pilot, clad in dark material that might have been leather or something equally durable. But whoever it was, his or her face was covered by a mask and a set of large, bizarre-looking goggles. It was an ungainly vehicle; he did not know how it managed to stay aloft, only that it did.

The pilot cut the engine and slowed its approach, gliding around the mesa a couple of times before vanishing completely. Dumbfounded, Tommy stared at the place where it had disappeared around the side of the mesa. It was really too bad Billy couldn't see any of this.

"Come on," Trini said suddenly, interrupting his thoughts with her imperious tone, as if she was tempted to physically prod him out of his helpless gawking. On second thought, she probably wouldn't hesitate to do just that if he didn't get moving. "Let's go see how her patrol went."


	4. Chapter 4

Trini led the way up the main staircase. It wound up into the stone of the mesa before widening up into a huge landing. An enormous opening had been cut into the rock; the view was spectacular, but the room was meant to be a hangar, not an observation deck. This was where the strange flying machine Tommy had seen a few moments ago had disappeared to.

It was now silent and still, its pilot nowhere to be seen, but it was no less bizarre close up than it had been when seen from a distance. He was intensely curious about the strange machine and would have liked a chance to take it for a spin himself, to see how it worked, but one look from Trini quashed that idea before he could even voice it.

So instead, he contented himself with merely asking, "What is this thing?"

Her expression shifted from imposing glare to mild confusion. "It's a glider," she explained, as if he should already know that. "One of our airborne patrol vehicles."

And she left it at that for the moment, heading toward the far end of the room. He realized now there was a doorway there, covered by a curtain. Halfway there, Trini paused and looked over her shoulder at him. "Don't touch it."

Tommy pretended he had not been about to do just that and nodded obediently.

Satisfied with his answer, she only glared at him for a couple more seconds before turning back to her goal. "Everything all right in there?"

There was a muffled response, and then the curtain was yanked open. Behind it stood the missing pilot, now quite obviously a woman, still wearing flying gear. Or at least most of it. He couldn't help but ogle a little. She had some very fine curves, and the tight leather pants and that half-buttoned flying jacket with the flimsy, almost sheer shirt underneath weren't doing her any disservices.

As he watched, practically spellbound, she shed her gloves and pushed her goggles up onto her forehead. Then, after sharing an amused glance with Trini, she turned to Tommy, tugged the flying mask down off her face, and asked a question. A question he never heard, because it felt like his heart had stopped beating.

Underneath all that flying gear was Kimberly Hart.


	5. Chapter 5

Tommy sat on cool sands and watched as the stars progressed through their nightly motions. The sight of familiar constellations tracing slow circles across the sky would have been soothing... if not for the constant prickly feeling of being watched. Trini and Kimberly sat a short distance away from him; he could faintly hear their murmured conversation, but had long since stopped trying to eavesdrop.

Instead he let his thoughts wander to his current predicament. He wasn't sure where he was or how he had come to be there. The only things he knew for certain were that this wasn't Angel Grove... and he had no idea how to get back home, if he even could.

He supposed it could have been worse. He could have ended up in some Dark Dimension again, facing evil versions of his old friends instead of... whatever these were. The girls were clearly still themselves, but they were also fundamentally different. This wasteland world had obviously had an effect on them.

These might be different from the Trini and Kimberly he had known, but he still trusted them implicitly. And so he didn't mind (too much) that they were currently deciding his fate. At least they knew where they were and what was going on, which was more than he could say for himself.

He would just have to trust them until he could find a way to get back to Angel Grove. He was sure it wouldn't be easy, but he had gotten here somehow and that meant, he hoped, that he could also go back.

Good thing he liked challenges.

Lost in his thoughts, he almost hadn't noticed that the sky was growing lighter in the east. For better or worse, the sun was rising on a new day.


	6. Chapter 6

Tommy did not realize he had fallen asleep until he woke up with the sound of buzzing in his ears, a mechanical drone that was far more annoying than anything should be allowed to be. Worse: his eyes felt crusty, his body bone dry, and he had sand in places where there should never, ever be sand.

And since that apparently was not bad enough, there was a giant _thing _(airship, his mind supplied belatedly) hovering in the air near the mesa where he and the girls had taken shelter for the night. Hovering maybe fifty feet overhead, it looked for all the world like a small, deranged zeppelin, and was the source of the constant noise.

"When did that get here?" he muttered.

"Just a few minutes ago," a very familiar voice chirped from somewhere behind him. Kimberly. "She's a beauty, isn't she?"

"Yeah," he agreed absently.

"Come on, get up," she urged. "It's here for us."

A short while later, after a hasty breakfast, Tommy found himself escorted up a rather terrifying rope ladder and into the airship. Three men and a woman were waiting for them as they climbed one by one through the hatch. After exchanging greetings with Trini and Kimberly, and sending suspicious looks in his direction, the woman and one of the men descended from the ladder; the remaining men retreated to a room toward the front of the vessel, which Tommy assumed was the control room, leaving the passengers alone.

The room they were in was fairly large, with a cluster of benches secured to the floor toward the center. But more importantly, there were windows. Lots of windows.

Once they were safely aloft, he made his way over to the nearest window and looked out. They were rising slowly and drifting roughly west across the desert. From up here, the world seemed like nothing so much as a sea of sand, dotted with small islands and distant, tiny pockets of green.

It was beautiful, in a strange, desolate way.

He made his way slowly along one row of windows and then crossed to the other before finally settling on a vantage point. He had to admit it was kind of soothing to just drift along like this, watching the world go by. It had been a long time since he had really had a chance to relax. Being a Power Ranger tended to have that effect.

As his thoughts gradually soured, he became aware of a presence nearby. He glanced over without turning his head and nearly sighed.

Kimberly stood next to him, eyes closed, her elbows propped on the railing and her chin resting atop her hands. She looked peaceful, serene, beautiful... as utterly at home in the air as the Kimberly he had known back in Angel Grove.

And he could feel the wounds, so recently beginning to heal, start to reopen at the sight of her.

It was difficult, and somewhat confusing, to keep the two versions of Kimberly separate in his head. There was the Kimberly he had known and fallen head over heels for, who had ultimately broken his heart, and then there was this Kimberly, who he really did not even know yet. They looked the same and had many of the same mannerisms, and yet there were differences.

This one wore leather, for example. Not that he was complaining.

Except maybe he _should_ complain, because it wasn't fair for one Kimberly to be this attractive when the other had recently dumped him.

He wondered if he had a prayer of being friends with this Kimberly, or if he would be doomed to make the same mistakes all over again. It would be risky... but so far she was the closest thing to a real ally he had in this place, and he had a feeling he was going to need all the friends he could get.

Even if that meant swallowing his lingering bitterness and tempting fate.

"I thought you and Trini were supposed to be on a patrol of some sort," he commented quietly.

"We were," she said with a little laugh. "But the Elders asked us to return to the 'Hold with you to give a more thorough report."

He could practically feel Trini's gaze boring into his back. It was almost creepy. "Sounds like it's kind of a big deal."

Kimberly shrugged. "Well, it isn't every day we find cute guys with no memory wandering around in the desert, you know."

It was probably better that they thought he had amnesia, since his real story was a bit hard to believe, so he didn't correct her about the memory thing. Instead, he asked, "So, uh, what's this 'hold' thing you keep talking about?"

She shifted to face him, and he found himself almost unconsciously doing the same. "The Angel's Grove Stronghold. 'The 'Hold' for short. It's where the Rangers live, sort of our base of operations."

"I see," he said, even though he did not, and that earned him another giggle.

"Don't worry, you will. I'll even give you a tour myself." The dazzling smile that followed told him without a doubt that he had just stepped out of the frying pan... and straight into the fire.


	7. Chapter 7

The Stronghold was similar to the outpost where Tommy and the girls had spent the night, in that it had been hollowed out of an enormous rock formation, but it was larger. Much larger. Large enough, in fact, that several airships like the one that had brought them here could fit on top of it with room to spare.

They made a neat landing on the roof, and by the time they touched down Kimberly was fairly bouncing with excitement. "I can't wait to show you everything!" she exclaimed.

"If the elders permit it," Trini cautioned.

"They will," Kim assured him. Somehow he managed to evade her grab for his hand without feeling entirely awkward. This was Kimberly, after all. And while he might have decided already to make her an ally in this strange place, but that didn't mean he was going to let her haul him around like they were boyfriend and girlfriend. He knew how treacherous those waters could be, and he wasn't about to be caught off guard.

"They might not," Trini insisted, ignoring her companions' antics.

Tommy decided it was best just to let the girls bicker, rather than risk drawing Kimberly's attention again, and waited for some signal that they had permission to disembark from the airship. It wasn't long before he heard the sounds of activity outside the ship. A few seconds later the side door was pulled open.

There was a group of people clustered outside. Some were armed with strange guns like the one Trini carried, others were not. None of them looked especially friendly.

Kimberly gave him a last, reassuring look before the three of them were ushered from the ship and down into the Stronghold. There was a small structure that looked like a hut near one end of the roof, standing beside what must have been a radio tower, and this was where they headed. Inside, they descended a winding metal staircase that led into the depths of the Stronghold.

The stairwell was lit by bright electric light bulbs; somehow he hadn't expected that.

It seemed that they headed down for a very long time. After a while, Tommy felt his apprehension growing with every step. Kimberly and Trini had been chatting up for most of the trip, but now they sobered and fell silent. This couldn't be good.

When they finally departed the stairwell, passing through a doorway off the third landing, he was led down a long hallway - in the opposite direction from the girls. His group walked in silence, so he could hear Kimberly and Trini being given stern orders from their escorts. But sound seemed oddly muffled in this place and it wasn't long before he couldn't make out what was being said anymore.

He'd heard enough, anyway. He had tried to feel as confident as Kimberly about the reception he would face, but this settled it. He was officially in trouble.

But there wasn't much he could do about it. For better or worse, this was the path he had chosen. He would just have to hope for the best... and try to fight his way out if things went downhill. But considering the fact that he had three escorts, all of whom were armed while he was not, he wasn't particularly eager to test his luck.

Besides, no one had been openly hostile toward him yet. He tried to convince himself that that was a good sign and not an indication of impending doom, and would have succeeded had he not been guided into a smaller side hallway at just that moment. This hallway was not as wide or well lit as the first, and it was lined with narrow doors on both sides.

An imperious looking woman, who must have been one of the elders Trini kept talking about, was waiting for him about halfway down that hall. "I apologize, sir," she said as Tommy and the others drew closer. "But we can't just have you roaming about the 'Hold until we're certain you aren't a threat."

He stared at her in silence, wondering if he should be regretting his decision to trust Kimberly and Trini.

The woman opened the door she had been standing in front of and motioned Tommy inside. That door opened onto a tiny cell, and he did not like the look of it one bit.

"It'll just be for a little while, while we interview Kimberly and Trini to verify your story," she assured him. "You understand, of course."

"Of course," he agreed. But he didn't, really. He wasn't sure what he had done to merit being locked up, but he didn't argue the point. It would be better, he suspected, not to cause trouble. And he didn't think he would change her mind, no matter what he said.

"We'll be back to talk to you soon," she said. And without another word she shut the door behind him and locked it. He listened to her footsteps fade into the distance, and then there was silence.

Since he didn't have anything else to do, he wasted a few moments looking around his cell. It didn't take long: the place was dark and cramped, the only light filtering in through a slit in the metal door, and there wasn't much in it except dust and cobwebs.

Tommy finished his inspection with a sigh. So much for hospitality.


	8. Chapter 8

Tommy Oliver had never been blessed with particularly good luck. Anything that could go wrong generally did, so he was somewhat surprised when it was not all that long before the woman who had locked him up returned to let him out.

"That's it?" he asked.

Without looking particularly enthused, the woman replied, "It kept you out of trouble, didn't it?"

He had to grudgingly admit she was right, although he was not about to tell her that he did in fact have a knack for accidentally getting into trouble.

"Kimberly and Trini have given their testimony and the elders have made their decision," the woman went on. "Come along."

Tommy wasn't sure he liked the sound of that, but figured he didn't have much choice in the matter and might as well face his fate head-on. He followed her back down the hallway and into the maze that was the Stronghold, and was thoroughly lost by the time they reunited with Kimberly and Trini.

The girls were not alone. They were accompanied by a cluster of adults that could only be the elders everyone had been talking so much about. Tommy was a bit disconcerted to find that none of these so-called elders was past middle-age. It was really starting to sink in that this place wasn't at all like the Earth he called home, and he had to wonder just how tough it might be to survive here.

For a long moment the group of elders simply observed him in silence. He felt nervous under their scrutiny. Had someone forgotten to tell him he was supposed to bow, or say something, or show some other sign of respect? Ultimately, it was one of the elders that broke the silence. "We have some questions for you, young man."

"Ask away." Questions? He could handle questions. He had been half expecting a fight. Although after the way Trini had interrogated him when she found him, maybe he was right to expect the worst.

"What is your name?"

"Tommy Oliver."

"Trini and Kimberly tell us that you have no memory of what happened to you before they found you yesterday," the elder, who looked like she must be related to his old teacher, Ms. Appleby, went on. "Is this true?"

"Yes," he said without hesitation. It was close enough to true, at least, and he didn't want to create any more fuss or confusion than he absolutely had to.

"And why have you come here?"

"I don't know. Because Trini and Kimberly brought me here, I guess." He had a feeling he had just made a pretty critical mistake, but tried not to let it faze him. It wouldn't be the first time he had majorly messed something up.

One of the other elders, a man with salt-and-pepper hair, spoke up. "Do you even know where you are?"

"Not really, no. Kimberly told me what it's called, but I don't have any idea where this place is or why it's even here." Honesty was the best policy, right? Kimberly had mentioned something about 'rangers', but while he liked the sound of that he had no real idea what it meant. He hoped that one of the elders might see fit to enlighten him.

None of the elders looked pleased by his answer, or the least bit inclined to answer any of his implied questions. Tommy sighed. "Look," he said, "I may not know what's going on here, but I've heard and seen some things that worry me and I'd like to help if I can."

"You believe _you_ can help _us_?"

It sounded really presumptuous when they put it like that. Of course, these people did not know his history as a Power Ranger. But he was becoming more and more convinced that the people of this world needed help. Trini had mentioned spies and slaves, and from what he had seen, the land was little more than desert. Even if he never told them about the Power Rangers, he thought he could be an asset to them. He was strong. He knew how to work hard. And he knew how to fight. The rest he could learn as he went. If nothing else, it would give him something to do until he figured out how to get home.

The only hard part, really, would be convincing the elders that letting him help was a better option than locking him up and throwing away the key.

"I won't know until I try," he told them.

This earned him nothing more than unimpressed looks from the amassed elders.

"Look at him," Kimberly piped up suddenly. Her obviously unwanted contribution to the discussion drew the elders' ire momentarily away from Tommy, for which he was grateful. "He's obviously no weakling. And he managed to keep up with _Trini _for an entire day. We have a couple of empty beds. Why send him to the cities and try to find another candidate later when he's already here?"

"Because," came the sharp answer, from a tall, thin woman who had not yet spoken up, "we have no proof that this man is trustworthy. We do not know where he came from or who he serves. The safest option is to send him to the cities and find others to work as Rangers."

"What makes orphans and thieves better candidates than someone with amnesia?" Kimberly demanded.

"Kimberly Hart, you will be silent or you will be removed from these proceedings."

"You're making a mistake," Kimberly insisted.

Watching this, Tommy felt suddenly torn. He was not sure if it was real or all in his head, but he felt a strong attachment to Kimberly and Trini, and he didn't like the idea of being separated from them. But at the same time, if there were cities elsewhere in this world, those might offer a better opportunity of finding a way home. This Stronghold seemed like little more than an outpost in the middle of nowhere.

But one thing was certain. If the elders sent him away now, he would never get another chance to come back.

"I want to stay," he said suddenly. "I want to learn everything you can teach me here."

"And why is that?" asked one of the elders, eying him critically.

"I don't know much about this place," he admitted. "But if I can do good here, then that's what I want to do."

The elders clustered together, apparently discussing what he had just said. After a lengthier debate than Tommy would have liked, they turned back to him.

The one that looked like Ms. Appleby stepped forward, as if she were the group's spokesperson. "Is it your desire to become a Ranger and serve this Stronghold, Tommy Oliver?"

With conviction, he told them, "Yes."

Kimberly looked elated. Trini looked almost guilty. The elder's gaze hardened into a fierce glare. "Is it?"

"Yes," he said with less certainty. A moment later, deciding that maybe he really wasn't as sure as he thought he was, he added, "What exactly _is_ a Ranger?"


	9. Chapter 9

A Ranger, Tommy was informed, was many things. A Ranger was a guardian of civilization. From their stronghold bases, strung out along the edges of the great desert, the Rangers patrolled the wastelands and destroyed monsters before they could reach the human cities and wreak havoc. They were innovators, making use of technology that was new to the people of this world, such as radio and powered flight. They were also warriors, trained in combat and ready to defend civilians at a moment's notice should the need arise.

They were also, for the most part, orphans and children from poor families who had been selected as Rangers in order to give them a chance at a better life. Most were raised in the stronghold from a young age, usually from the time they were between the ages of seven and nine. A few came later, of their own choice.

Even the youngest were subject to strict rules of conduct, but there was a certain pride in being chosen to work as a Ranger. After all, the strongholds could only employ as many Rangers as they could house and provide for, so the number of available positions was generally small.

Rangers, it was impressed upon him in stern tones, were very, very rare.

Tommy was lucky. There was an open bed in the 'Hold right now. That meant he could take the Ranger test and, if he was found worthy, be allowed to remain at the 'Hold until death, injury, or other circumstances forced his retirement.

Maybe lucky was the wrong word.

When all of this had been explained to him, in the bored manner of a long-memorized, often-repeated speech, by the elders of the Stronghold, Tommy asked, "So what does this test involve?"

"It's basically an aptitude test to see if you'd make a good Ranger," Kimberly piped up, earning displeased looks from her superiors.

"The test is in three parts. In the first you will be asked to demonstrate that you are capable of thinking clearly and quickly, and that you can solve problems for which there is no easy solution. In the second part your skill with machinery will be tested. The third trial is a combat test in which you will face one of our veteran Rangers, in a realistic demonstration of what a Ranger may face on a day-to-day basis," explained the elder woman who looked like Ms. Appleby.

Tommy wished he knew any of the elders' names. It would have made addressing them, and responding to them, a lot easier. "Sounds easy enough," he said, hoping he didn't sound overly confident.

When the elders exchanged knowing looks among themselves, he hoped he wasn't being overly confident. But at the same time, since they seemed so convinced that he would be unable to pass the test, he became determined to prove them wrong.

The first two trials were simple, at least for someone who had served as leader of the Power Rangers team. He might not know a lot about this world, but many of the basics of leadership and quick thinking remained the same no matter what. And he had piloted enough zords in addition to more mundane mechanical tinkering to be able to guess his way around machines, even the bizarre ones they used here in the Stronghold.

While the elders who were serving as judges did not seem particularly impressed with the results of his first trial, he did catch them murmuring excitedly amongst themselves after his mechanical test. He had picked up on the ins and outs of their theoretical machinery with a speed that had actually surprised them.

By the time he was ready to head into the third trial, a small crowd of onlookers had joined Kimberly and Trini. Unsure of exactly what he would be facing in the final, combat-based trial, Tommy felt a bit of foreboding. He had faced plenty of dangers as a Power Ranger, and gotten himself and his teammates out of more than their share of sticky situations, but he knew it was never a good idea to go into a fight assuming that victory was assured. He needed to be ready for whatever they were going to throw at him.

Unfortunately, the 'whatever' the elders were going to throw at him turned out to be Jason Lee Scott. Or his equivalent from this world, if the two were really all that different.

Somehow, the fact that he was going to face Jason for this test made him feel better. Jason was one of his best friends. He knew Jason's personality and his fighting style, and he knew how to beat Jason in a fight, even if such a feat was often easier said than done.

And he had even more incentive to win when he heard Kimberly mutter, "Oh, that's so not fair, putting him up against Jason like that."

The training ring was set up outdoors in front of the Stronghold. It was really just a square marked out in the sand, but that was all part of the test; the objective was to score as many points as possible within the time limit, and points were scored by knocking one's opponent to the ground or pushing him out of the ring. It would have been much easier if the opponent was not also trying to score as many points as possible. Still, Tommy thought it all sounded reasonable.

Kimberly, accompanied by a pair of younger girls who might have been ten or so, brought him some lightweight padded armor and a makeshift club. Jason was outfitted in much the same way, although Tommy was annoyed to see that most of the young people who had turned out to watch the match seemed to be there to support Jason. Well, he would show them.

One of the elders reiterated the rules for all to hear. While this was being done, Jason and Tommy stepped into the ring. Tommy bowed respectfully; Jason did not bow, but regarded Tommy with dark, intense eyes.

Tommy tried not to let that bother him. The Jason he knew had always been somewhat intimidating. This was no different.

Except that it was.

The elder finished his recitation of the rules and all bets were off.

Much to Tommy's surprise, Jason fought dirty. He had been expecting a pretty straightforward fight, but this was anything but.

Rather than engaging him directly, Jason stayed determinedly out of range and attempted to use the environment to his advantage. First he used any sticks and large rocks he could find as projectiles, aiming for any vulnerable point; when that failed, he kicked sand at Tommy, hoping to get it in the other man's eyes, and used the distraction this provided to rush forward and pitch Tommy to the ground.

As he hauled himself back up for round two, Tommy realized he'd been thinking of this trial all wrong. Jason wasn't participating in this test to act like a Ranger or a sparring partner. He was there to fight like the Rangers' enemies. Of course he wasn't going to fight fair. Their enemies were ruffians and animalistic monsters, neither of which could be counted on not to exploit an unfair advantage in battle.

Tommy needed to stop thinking of his opponent as Jason, his friend, and start thinking of him as one of the men Trini had called raider lords: one of the bad guys.

This time, when the signal to start was given, Tommy did not give Jason time to find an advantage. Instead he charged forward, putting the fight on his terms. After a few failed attempts at getting past Jason's defenses, Tommy ditched his club altogether in favor of fighting barehanded. This seemed to take Jason a bit by surprise, but Tommy considered unarmed fighting to be his forte. If nothing else, it felt more comfortable than using a foreign weapon like a club.

He pushed the advantage Jason's momentary surprise had given him. He was able to block the next few attacks from Jason and eventually succeeded in disarming him. When Jason inevitably tried to reassert control over the fight, Tommy was ready for him and met his next attack with a flurry of jumping kicks. Jason blocked these easily and seized the very first possible opening he saw, lunging past Tommy's guard with a powerful punch.

Unfortunately for him, this was what Tommy had hoped he would do. Rather than being struck, Tommy dodged quickly to one side and quickly executed a low spinning kick that caught Jason by surprise and sent him tumbling to the ground.

The score was now tied, one to one, with not much time left. Tommy was not sure whether a tie would be considered good enough, and hoped for a miracle victory. It wasn't going to be easy to beat Jason, especially now that Jason knew to be more careful going into this final round.

This time, Jason seemed to have forgotten his orders to act like the Rangers' enemies. This time was more like fighting the Jason he knew from back in Angel Grove. They fought each other with lightning quick moves, dodging or blocking at the last second, flowing across and around the ring.

The timer chimed, but although that was the official signal for the test to be over, no one paid any attention to it.

By now Tommy was sweating profusely in the heat of the afternoon, wishing that the test had not required him to wear the padded armor, and hoping to find a way to end it quickly. Preferably in a way that did not involve losing or otherwise throwing the match.

It turned out that Jason was really good when he wasn't trying to act like the elders' idea of a bad guy. Tommy found it really challenging, almost thrilling, to compete against him. Almost before he knew it, Jason had him backed up against one of the boundary lines... but not for long.

Tommy hurriedly flipped out of the way before Jason could push him out of bounds. It would have been easier, and less showy, to simply roll or dive out of the way, but he did not want to take any chances. He wasn't sure if a deliberate roll across the ground would count as a point against him or not, but figured it was better not to risk it. Not when his future depended on winning this fight.

He was not sure when he had started feeling as if his life depended on the outcome of this one fight, and decided not to worry about that now. He would have plenty of time to ponder the weirdness of his current situation after he won this fight.

With that in mind, he returned his attention to the fight with renewed effort. His flip had put him in a good position, if he could manage to be quick and strong enough to get past Jason's defenses. And with any luck that wouldn't be as difficult as it sounded.

They were both moving a little slower than normal, because it was damn hot fighting in the sun like this and they had been going at it for a while now. And Tommy had a secret trump card: he knew all, or at least most, of Jason's basic moves and favorite strategies. He knew Jason's finishing moves. And he knew how to beat and avoid them.

He almost felt bad doing it, because it really wasn't fair. He did it anyway, because this was important.

He let his guard down.

But this time Jason didn't go for the obvious opening. He waited a moment, let Tommy appear to regain his composure, and then went for a more straightforward series of attacks.

Tommy put up little resistance. He evaded and parried what he could, only throwing in enough attacks of his own to make Jason believe he was wearing down, but still in it to win the fight. Every time he avoided a kick or strike from Jason, he made sure to move backward. It was a calculated risk, letting Jason back him into a corner again, hoping he was judging the distance to the boundary line behind him correctly. But it paid off.

As they drew closer to the corner, with one boundary line to his left and another just behind him, Jason knew there would only be one way for Tommy to go, and he wasn't about to let him escape so easily. And that was what Tommy was counting on.

As Jason blocked the more obvious escape route to his right, Tommy slipped past him on the other side, skirting carefully past the boundary line. There was enough room, but only just barely. He made it past Jason without stepping out of bounds. Jason pivoted to follow his movements, but Tommy was already halfway around him again. This time it was Jason between Tommy and the out of bounds line. A well-timed push sent him reeling. He recovered quickly, but it was too late.

There was a collective gasp from the small audience as the match was suddenly called in Tommy's favor. Jason stared in disbelief, but could not deny the obvious: he had stepped out of bounds.

Tommy turned to Jason with a grin. "Good match," he said appreciatively. "We should do that again sometime."

"Yeah," Jason replied vaguely.

It was a bit unnerving to see Jason being so openly wary and unfriendly, but then again he supposed that coming in out of nowhere and beating him in a fight wasn't a very good way to make friends with someone like Jason. The Jason he knew back in Angel Grove would've simply given him a high five and laughingly sworn vengeance for next time. This one seemed more inclined to remain aloof and glare at him suspiciously.

At least, Tommy reflected, he had one person on his side, even if that person was Kimberly. She was waiting for him just outside the ring, all smiles in the face of his surprise victory.

"You won!" she cheered, exuberant, as she handed him a towel and a canteen of water that she had been hanging onto since they headed outside for the combat trial.

"Yeah, I did," Tommy commented more soberly, looking over to where the elders were once again debating furiously amongst themselves. "But they don't look very happy about it."

"They're not," Kimberly said with a sigh. When he met her gaze, she looked a little worried and explained, "You just beat their best fighter."


	10. Chapter 10

In the end, the Elders relented. As grumbly and grumpy as they were about it, they had little choice. They just couldn't pass up a candidate with Tommy's talents.

So they escorted him back into the Stronghold, to a secret room that must have been in the very center of the complex, told him to sit at the large table that occupied most of the room, and laid out the contract in front of him. They didn't force him to sign or anything, but they handed him an old fashioned pen and waited expectantly until he had signed his name on the line.

He felt surprisingly nervous about it; he had understood very little of what the contract said. But like it or not, he was a Ranger now. Or at least a trainee-Ranger. He had thought he would feel more excited about it once it was all official, but he didn't. Instead, he felt like he'd just signed a deal with the devil.

He had hoped that he would have a chance to talk with Kimberly and Jason after he signed his contract, but the elders had a different plan in mind: his training was to begin as soon as possible. And since he had nothing to bring in or unpack, except the clothes he was wearing, that meant now.

First he was given a key and given a guide, a boy he didn't recognize. The boy showed him to a door, and told him that by order of the elders this was the room he would call home for the duration of his stay at the Stronghold. As his guide whisked him off even further into the 'Hold, he was suddenly certain he would never remember where to find that room again and cursed his terrible memory. Never one to be easily deterred, he put the key in a pocket anyway and followed dutifully after his guide.

Thus began Tommy's tour of the Angel's Grove Stronghold. His guide took him through it from top to bottom, showing him where to find the cafeteria and infirmary, the different wings of dormitory-style rooms where the Rangers lived, where to find the various training facilities, where the exits - both on ground level and on top of the building - were.

His head was spinning as he tried to remember all of this, and it was just beginning. He was passed off to another guide, who appeared to be somewhat older than the first, and soon found himself in a new area of the Stronghold, which he had not seen before.

"The armory," his new guide explained.

Here he was outfitted with a saber (which pleased him more than he was willing to admit), then tested for aptitude and grudgingly given a strange gun like the one Trini had been pointing at him when he first woke up in the middle of the desert. The man who was doling out weaponry, who seemed to be in charge of the armory, also gave Tommy a bow and quiver before sending him off to an empty locker to store his things.

After he had stowed his new gear and made sure to memorize the number and location of his locker, as his guide was leading him out of the armory, the man gave him a warning: "Your training starts tomorrow, bright and early. Don't be late."

The next stop was the tailor. The tailor was a bubbly, middle-aged woman, completely the opposite of the icy, harsh man from the armory. She gave Tommy several new sets of clothes, and took his measurements so she could begin work on a patrol uniform for him as soon as possible.

By the time he thought to wonder what time it was, as his watch had stopped working and there were no windows or clocks that he could see within the 'Hold, his guide only told him that it was past dinner time. But luckily the tailor seemed to be their last stop of the day, because Tommy soon found himself standing in the entry to the cafeteria and waving good-bye to his guide.

The cafeteria was an enormous room with very high ceilings. It was kind of spooky now, when it was mostly empty. A few tables toward the back had people around his age, other Rangers, he assumed, sitting at them and talking quietly. Nearby, the large double doors to the kitchens were open, so that those that had missed dinner might fend for themselves.

"Hey," a voice called from his left.

Tommy turned. It was Kimberly, of course.

"They're finally done with you?" she asked.

Wandering over to the small alcove where she was sitting, Tommy noticed that she had food. He hadn't realized how hungry he was until just now. "Yeah, I guess so," he agreed, sitting opposite her.

"I figured they'd take their time," she said. "So I saved some food for you."

It wasn't what he was used to. In fact, he wasn't even quite sure what it was, but he was hungry enough not to care. Kimberly said it was food, so that meant it was edible and he was going to eat it.

She smiled as she watched him chow down. "Slow down, it's not going anywhere," she promised.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, but he made an effort to make himself look more like a gentleman and less like a pig.

When he had demolished the last of the food, she took a few moments to move the dirty dishes out of the way before finally getting to what she was actually after. "So, where'd they put you?"

It took him a bit to realize she was talking about the room he'd been assigned. Naturally, he couldn't remember where that was... but he did remember getting a key. "I don't remember," he admitted, digging in his pocket for the key. Kimberly gave him a curious look until he planted the key on the table. "But they did give me this key. Does that help?"

Kimberly picked up the key, looked it over for a second, and sighed. "Oh."

That did not sound good. Tommy gingerly accepted the key when she handed it back. "What is it?"

She gave him a wry look. "This explains why they kept me busy all day. They didn't want me to notice that they're bunking you with Jason." Her expression suggested she would have much preferred to have him share a room with her.

Tommy groaned. He had not realized he was going to have a roommate. He probably should have thought to ask about that. "He's going to kill me in my sleep, isn't he?"

Kimberly giggled. "Let's hope not. Come on, I'll show you the way."


	11. Chapter 11

_Three months later..._

* * *

><p>"This is a very bad idea." Tommy did not say it, but he definitely thought it. Three months of intensive Ranger training had taught him the dangers of talking back to the Elders, so although he kept his mouth shut he allowed himself to mentally question their judgment.<p>

Kimberly, on the other hand, seemed elated.

That, of course, was the problem. She had taken an immediate liking to him from the moment they first met. His months spent living and training in the 'Hold had done little to diminish that. And his decision to walk the line between keeping her as a friend and ally on the one side, and avoiding her increasingly inventive romantic advances - without hurting her - on the other, had him feeling like he was teetering on a razor-thin tight-rope. One push and it would all come tumbling down.

And now that he had reached an important milestone in his training, the Elders wanted Kimberly to act as his flight instructor. Everything in him screamed _bad idea_ at the very thought of being alone with her, in the air and with no means of escape, but he simply nodded and accepted the Elders' decision... and thought to himself that Kimberly and Ms. Appleby, who had delivered the announcement in person, looked entirely too pleased with themselves.

He had the sudden impression that people in the 'Hold were conspiring against him. Knowing his luck, they were. This was probably not going to end well. He forced back a sigh.

"So," he began, "when do we start?"

As sweet and innocent as could be, Kimberly suggested, "Now?"


	12. Chapter 12

With practiced ease, Kimberly brought the airship to life. Tommy watched carefully as she flipped switches and warned him which gauges to keep an eye on. He had covered all this information during his previous training at the 'Hold, of course, but seeing it happen in real life was entirely different from reading about it in a textbook or working with a model.

As he watched Kimberly's demonstration, he filed the information away into the same part of his brain that had always immediately absorbed the knowledge of how to pilot his many Zords during his stint as a Power Ranger. That part of his life was starting to feel alarmingly distant, and that feeling only grew stronger as he spent more time in this new world. He felt almost guilty for fitting in so well at the 'Hold, and devoting himself to joining their Ranger program when he could have been searching more actively for a way to get back home.

But even as he felt guilty about his failure to find a way home, he found the mechanics of the airships here too fascinating to pass up. By the time they actually lifted off of the compound's roof, he felt like he had the gist of the controls.

They flew east for a while as Kimberly continued to explain the ship's inner workings in detail. After about an hour, she glanced over at him with a mischievous look in her eyes and asked, "Want to give it a try?"

Of course he did, and they both knew it.

The ship had no automatic piloting system, something she quickly assured him that Billy was working on, so making the switch required good timing. Once Tommy was seated in the pilot's chair and had taken the controls, he thought Kimberly would head over to take up the co-pilot's position, but she lingered next to him instead.

They continued on their eastern course without incident for a long time. The weather was good and even though the land below him was a desert wasteland, Tommy found himself enjoying the chance to explore beyond the 'Hold. He had just spotted a strange cluster of mesas slightly to the north when Kimberly instructed him to take the airship lower. He had a bad feeling about that mess, and sure enough, Kimberly pointed and said, "I want you to head over there."

"What is it?" he asked.

"The elders call it the training ground," she explained. "It's kind of a trial by fire for new pilots."

He had been afraid she was going to say something like that, but at the same time he was pleased to have the chance to really prove himself. And really, after piloting as many Zords as he had, how hard could it be?

As he guided the ship toward the training ground, he thought of something. "How come you don't use these for your patrols?"

"We do," Kimberly told him. "How do you think we do long-range surveillance? And we use them when we need to pick up injured Rangers, and for some other things, like when the elders wanted to bring you, me, and Trini in for questioning when we first found you. The gliders are just easier and less - how did Billy put it? - _resource intensive_ for close-range missions."

Tommy supposed that made sense. From what he had seen, resources like fuel were pretty scarce in this ruined version of the Earth, and the gliders had the advantage of being able to glide for long distances without using any fuel at all while the airships were engine-powered.

The airship's cockpit was quiet and tense as Tommy guided the ship into the training course. They were so low now that stone loomed close on both sides, plunging the cockpit into shade.

Occasionally, Kimberly would give him some small bit of advice or a specific direction to take, but for the most part both of them remained silent. Fortunately, the air was calm around the ship, with only a faint breeze and the slightest hint of turbulence. All of the ship's many gauges remained well within the safe zones, and Tommy was able to keep the ship safely away from any of the obstacles without a problem. It was nerve-wracking trying to keep the ship on course without bumping into anything and potentially puncturing the airbag that kept it aloft, but it wasn't nearly as difficult a test as he had thought it might be.

"So, did I pass?" he asked as they emerged into open air on the other side of the training course.

"You're a natural," Kimberly murmured. "Are you sure you've never flown one of these before?"

"I've just always been pretty good with machines," he told her. He had to try very hard to ignore the way she had practically draped herself over his shoulder.

"Well, that was the easy course," Kimberly went on. "We should probably head back soon. This was just a basic assessment of your skills, so we can see where you're at as a pilot and how much work we'll need to do to get you up to speed. Tomorrow we'll start working on the real training."

He recalled a question he had been meaning to ask. "Am I ever going to fly one of the gliders?"

Kimberly laughed. "You're way too big for a glider. But you showed so much promise in the written exams - and you kept saying how much you wanted to fly - that the elders wanted to get you up in the air as soon as possible, to see what you could really do."

It always felt odd to him to hear that the elders believed in him. They were uniformly stern to him when he encountered them. "Really?"

This time she smiled reassuringly. "Really. Now let's turn this bird around. After the training course, this should be easy..."

And it was, but as he turned the airship around to head for the 'Hold, he caught sight of an unusual rock formation in the desert to the northwest. "Hey, Kim, what's that?"

She had to glance back to see what he was talking about. "Oh, that. It's just one of the Slags."

He steered the ship well clear of the training course; he might have passed his beginner's test with flying colors but he had no desire to try working the course in reverse. "Slags?"

She sighed, and went to sit in the co-pilot's chair. He had become so used to having her in close proximity that it felt weird now that she wasn't right beside him.

"I thought they were tutoring you in history."

"They are," he said, glad to have the conversation to help keep his mind off other things. "But hearing about something and seeing it are totally different."

"Well, there it is. One of the places where the End began," Kimberly said, her voice turning sour.

Tommy couldn't resist giving the distant Slag a long, hard look, and remembering just how lucky his own world had been. In this world, he'd learned, Rita Repulsa had come to an unprotected Earth and destroyed the human civilization she found there, ruining much of the ecosystem in the process. At least his world had had a fighting chance.

For the first time, he wondered if this world had had a Zordon and a Command Center. If he was going to find a clue that could get him home, it would be at the Command Center. He'd avoided thinking about it in the past, because he had no chance of finding it on foot, if it even existed. But with an airship, he could make the trip for sure. All he would have to do would be to figure out where to look.

It seemed like a great plan until he remembered the catch: he wouldn't be allowed to take one of the airships out alone for a long time. If he wanted to find the Command Center, he was going to have to spend a lot more time training with Kimberly, and he was going to have to come up with a way to convince her to go along with his plan. And that worried him, and not just because she would probably think he was crazy if he tried to explain where he had come from.

Spending time with Kimberly was going to be a problem.

When he had first come here, he had resolved not to get emotionally entangled with anyone, least of all another version of Kimberly. And for the most part he had stood by that resolution so far. But in spite of his best efforts, she was starting to get under his skin.

It was the little things, the murmured words and casual touches, that were really getting to him.

And the more time he spent here, with her, the more he realized that she wasn't the Kimberly that had broken his heart at all. It was confusing to have to deal with people that looked and acted like his old friends from Angel Grove, especially when one of them was Kimberly. They were all starting to blur together in his head until he wasn't quite sure: if he started dating this Kimberly, what did that say about his relationship with the other Kimberly? Did it even matter?

If he ever got home, he would never see this Kimberly again. If he never found a way home, he'd never have to worry about the other one again.

But this Kimberly was here now, and it was obvious that she was interested in him. He couldn't deny that he was interested in her, too, and he was starting to wonder if it was fair not to give her a chance just because she looked like his ex. Having a girlfriend again after all this time didn't sound like such a bad idea, even though there was a little voice in his head, that sounded a lot like his conscience, that kept telling him that getting romantically involved with Kimberly again was the stupidest thing he could possibly do right now.

Tommy caught sight of the Stronghold in the distance and shook himself free of his distracted thoughts. As he guided the airship home, he glanced at Kimberly, who was steadfastly refusing to look at him. No matter what he chose to do next, it might not end well. He would just have to choose and hope for the best.


	13. Chapter 13

No sooner had the Hold come into sight than the airship's radio crackled to life. "Kimberly, we've got a problem. Do you copy?" The voice belonged to Trini.

Kimberly scrambled for the radio microphone. "I copy. Tommy and I just finished his training exercise. We're on our way back to the Hold. What's going on?"

"Jason and Zack radioed in a few minutes ago to say they'd found something weird out your way. I'd like you to go check it out and provide support if necessary. If you're close to the Hold, you can drop Tommy off here first and pick up a more experienced co-pilot..."

"Won't be a problem," Kimberly said. "Tommy's more than competent enough for this." With one hand covering the mic, she turned to Tommy and ordered, "Turn her around. We're needed back east."

While Tommy took care of that, she turned back to her conversation with Trini and obtained the coordinates they were heading for. With that accomplished, she slipped out of her seat and went to the back of the cabin, where extensive maps were pinned to the wall. He gave her a few minutes to chart the coordinates, then asked, "So where are we heading?"

"A spot pretty much due south from the training grounds," she replied, plopping back into the co-pilot's seat. "If Jason and Zack say there's trouble, then there probably is."

"What kind of trouble?"

"Based on the coordinates, I'd guess slave trafficking. We've had some trouble out that way before."

Tommy did not need to ask what kind of trouble she meant. He remembered Trini's initial reaction to him, her readiness to kill him on the spot if he was involved with one of the 'slave lords', all too well. And if two of the Hold's most accomplished Rangers were asking for backup, the situation would have to be something pretty intense.

The air in the cockpit was tense as Kimberly gave him directions to the rendezvous site. Even though Tommy knew they were covering a lot of ground, it still felt as if it would take far too long to get to where they were needed. If there was a conflict with slave traders, Jason and Zack could be captured or dead by the time he and Kimberly finally got there.

"Why are Jason and Zack out there together?" he ventured finally just to break the tense silence. "I thought patrol teams were made up of a man on foot and a woman with a glider..."

"They're working a double patrol. That route has a lot of ground to cover, and it's been quite dangerous in the past, so they send two teams. Zack's officially partnered with Katherine and Jason's with Aisha," Kimberly told him. "Don't you ever read the patrol rosters?"

He did not, except to see when Jason was going to be out of the Hold on patrol and he would have their shared room to himself. He'd never really paid attention to who got paired with whom, figuring it didn't really concern him since he hadn't completed his training yet. "So where are the girls?"

"Probably flying reconnaissance."

"And we're going to...?"

"See what's going on, and pull them out of there if we need to," Kimberly said, in the clipped tone that told him she was very worried for her friends.

He felt much the same way. Suddenly his half-formed idea of starting a relationship with Kimberly seemed utterly foolish. They had far more important work to do as Rangers right now, like getting their friends out of a potentially deadly situation. There would be time for personal lives later, or at least that was what he told himself. After all, it wasn't like they had to save the world or anything. They just had to go pick up their friends.

So he let the cabin fall silent, trusting that Kimberly would tell him anything he needed to know before it came up. They had miles to go yet, and he needed to concentrate on staying on course and making good time.

This day wasn't turning out at all like he had thought it would. He had felt fairly confident earlier, when he had mastered the training course with such ease, but now he felt only trepidation and the worry that he and Kimberly wouldn't make it in time to help. But then again, when the day started he'd been expecting a training exercise... not his first mission as a Ranger.


	14. Chapter 14

Far ahead of the airship and far below, the desert shimmered in the afternoon heat. Tommy slumped in the pilot's seat, trying to ignore Kimberly's tense pacing behind him. He didn't have to ask to know she was nearly frantic with worry. So was he. Their friends were out there somewhere, and they were probably in danger.

Tommy wished he had a better idea of where they were going and what they - and their friends - might be up against. Would he and Kimberly make it in time to find their friends alive? He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer, but couldn't help feeling impatient and frustrated anyway. If there was one thing he missed from his real world, it was teleportation. The desert all looked the same to him, making it hard to gauge how fast they were moving or how much ground they had covered. It was almost as bad as not knowing what was going on in the first place.

Behind him, Kimberly muttered something angrily, her words lost in the drone of the airship's engine.

A moment later, he thought he could make out the shapes of people on the ground in the distance. That must have been what set her off, but it looked like a lot more people than just the wayward Rangers. Worse, he couldn't see any gliders in the air. He wondered, horrified, if he'd gone off course, or if something had gone wrong. "Kim…"

She stood beside him, radiating tension. When he risked a glance in her direction, she seemed ready to snap.

"Kimberly," he repeated.

"If any of them are hurt, I swear…"

"Kimberly," he said again, and this time she almost seemed to hear him. "Tell me what to do." That definitely got through to her.

As if snapping out of a trance, she stepped over to lean over him and walked him through stopping the airship's forward motion. By the time they were above the people they had seen on the ground earlier, the ship was moving so slowly that it was essentially hovering.

"Now what?"

She strode purposefully away from him, heading toward the back of the ship. "I'm going down."

Tommy glanced over his shoulder to follow her progress, then quickly turned his gaze straight ahead again. Behind him, and without even warning him about what she was doing, Kimberly had stripped out of her ordinary clothes and was in the process of pulling on the leather flight suit she had been wearing when he first met her, or one very like it. He wasn't entirely sure where she'd gotten it from.

He wasn't sure it mattered at all, as he attempted to wrap his mind around the image of a half-undressed and completely unself-conscious Kimberly.

When she had finished getting dressed, she came to stand beside him again.

"Just hold the ship steady," she instructed. "I'll take care of the rest."

"What are you going to do?"

"I told you," she said, impatient. "I'm going down there. You just hold the ship steady."

He could tell she was still frightened and angry, so he didn't take offense at her tone. Or at being told to stay put, even though the last thing he wanted to do was let her go down there alone. If it was going to come to a fight, he wanted to be there with her. But somehow he knew she wouldn't let him get away with that.

And besides, he had to admit they couldn't take the chance of the unmanned ship getting away. Or worse, crashing. "Okay."

She met his gaze and stared at him for a long moment, though he had no idea what she was looking for, before turning away.

Before she could get out of the cockpit, he said, "Kim."

To his surprise, she actually turned back. "What?" she asked, her tone surprisingly gentle. He'd half expected her to snap at him.

"Be careful."

She smiled, but her face looked more fierce than friendly. "Always."


	15. Chapter 15

It felt like Tommy waited forever, floating above the desert, waiting to hear from Kimberly - or anyone - what had happened. He couldn't see what was going on directly beneath the airship and the radio was ominously silent, so he had no clue what the situation was.

Then, out of nowhere, he caught sight of something in the sky. A lone glider approached from the east. Katherine and Aisha would have both had gliders. So where was the second one?

The radio crackled sharply, nearly startling him out of his skin. "You're a sight for sore eyes," Katherine commented, her voice nearly lost in the rushing of the wind. She was the one in the glider, then.

"Where's Aisha?" Tommy radioed back.

"Lost her glider the other day," Kat told him. "There was an accident. It happens sometimes. The thing was junk after that. She's fine, though, as far as I know."

That made him feel a bit better, at least. "Any idea what's going on down there?"

"Hard to say. I'll get back to you when I'm on the ground," Katherine responded.

After that, it was just Tommy and the ominous silence again for several long minutes. As Katherine descended and landed her glider, he even lost sight of that.

It was hard to just sit and do nothing. After an eternity his radio crackled back to life. It was Kat again. "We're coming up, and we've got refugees. Hold her steady, these people haven't used an airship before," she instructed. Tommy did his best to obey.

He had never imagined that his first real flight would turn into this. Whatever this was. A rescue mission, he realized. And not just for Jason and the other Rangers, but for all the innocent people they'd rescued. It was suddenly starting to sink in why Trini had seemed so convinced that he might be a spy or a slave trader when she first found him out in the desert.

It was only a few more minutes before Jason entered the cockpit. His face was haggard. He looked exhausted.

He dropped himself into the copilot's chair without a word. Tommy fought against the urge to ask questions, knowing he wouldn't get an answer yet. His best bet, he knew, would be to ask Kimberly about it later.

It was several minutes before Kat came over the radio again. "Everyone's on board and the ladder's been retracted. You're good to go. I'm going to run one more sweep to make sure we didn't miss any stragglers, and then I'll be along."

Tommy radioed back an acknowledgement and started to turn the airship around. It was hard to keep his mind focused on piloting the ship when he kept sneaking glances over at Jason, who was as stoically silent as ever and also appeared to be covered in dried blood. Where had the blood come from? Kimberly had told him that strange and dangerous creatures stalked the desert. She had even showed him sketches of them. But he had not seen any sign of those. All he'd seen during the approach was people.

That was something he did not particularly want to think about.

Luckily, Kimberly came back into the cockpit while he was deciding not to think about it anymore, providing him with a convenient distraction. He hoped that she would fill him in on what was going on, but instead she went to Jason, crouching low beside him and whispering. "You did what you had to," she murmured soothingly.

Tommy kept his eyes straight ahead, occasionally dropping his gaze to check the instruments arrayed around him. What he really wanted to do was stare at Jason and Kim, but he knew he shouldn't intrude. Whatever was going on, they clearly thought it wasn't any of his business. And he supposed that meant it wasn't any of his business.

He listened in on them anyway. At this point, he would take any clue he could get as to what was going on.

"The elders will understand," Kim went on. "They always do. They know what it's like out there. They're as opposed to the slave trafficking as you and Trini -"

"Don't you think I know that?" Jason cut in. His tone was so harsh that Tommy couldn't help but glance over in alarm.

Quietly, Kimberly said, "Those people think you're a hero. Maybe you should try acting like it instead of sulking in here." She stalked out on that note, leaving Jason to seethe. He was remarkably good at it. Tommy knew better than to butt in, so he kept his mouth shut and his eyes forward.

It was going to be a long flight back to the 'Hold.


	16. Chapter 16

Somewhere between that God-forsaken spot in the desert and the 'Hold, Tommy pieced together the fragmented bits of what had happened. He hadn't meant to; it happened almost of its own accord.

Jason and the other Rangers had stumbled upon a group of slave traders transporting their human cargo across the desert. Tommy could not know for certain, because he had not had an opportunity to meet any of the airship's new passengers, but somehow he knew that none of the slave traders had been taken prisoner. They were all dead, and it was Jason that had done the deed. He didn't like to think about it, but it would explain everything he'd seen and heard so far.

The Jason he knew from back home would never have killed another human being, no matter what kind of scum that human being was. He would have let the proper authorities deal with the situation. Tommy wondered who the proper authorities were out here in the wastelands. Glancing over toward Jason, he had a feeling he knew.

By the time they reached the 'Hold, Tommy was in a daze. Kimberly returned to the cockpit about twenty minutes before their arrival to radio the 'Hold a warning and to instruct him on the proper landing procedure, but she was gone before the ship had been fully moored. When Jason got silently up from the co-pilot's chair and stalked out, Tommy followed at a safe distance.

Most of the elders, as well as Trini, Billy, and a crew that was hard at work securing the airship, were in attendance. All together, they had rescued eight people from the slavers. Every one of them looked hungry and dirty and terrified, but there were gratitude and admiration on their faces, too. They were glad to be alive and free.

Jason gave a brief report of what had happened, confirming Tommy's fears, and then disappeared into the 'Hold. Feeling suddenly conscious of how much about this place he didn't know, Tommy fell in with Zack, Aisha, and Kimberly to help escort the refugees to the mess hall. There, Kimberly informed him in a whisper, they would be given much-needed food, water, and medical attention - and would be kept where they could do no harm until the elders figured out what to do with them. Tommy remembered that process well, though he guessed it would be easier for these newcomers because nobody thought they were spies or slave traders.

A few hours later, after everything was settled and he'd scrounged up a meal, Tommy went in search of Kimberly. It took some doing, but he finally found her on the roof, seated at the very western edge with her legs dangling over the side. She held a mug of hot herbal tea in both hands and was watching the sun sink below the horizon.

For a moment he just stood there and watched her and breathed in the pleasant scent of her tea.

"Hey," he said quietly after a while, just to let her know he was there.

She twisted to look at him. "Hey."

Taking that to mean he should join her, he took a seat beside her. "You're a hard woman to find," he told her.

She raised a brow and took a defiant sip of her tea before answering. "Really," she murmured.

"I was hoping you could let me know how I did today," he said, and that was at least partly true. "This was my first time flying that bird."

She smiled weakly. "You're a natural, Tommy. You fly like you've been doing it your whole life. There aren't many first-timers that could do what you did today. At least not as well as you did it."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," he muttered.

She did not rise to the bait. Instead, she asked, "Where are you really from, Tommy?"

Suddenly he understood why his piloting skill bothered her: it made him look suspicious all over again, at least so far as the elders were concerned. He didn't for a moment doubt Kimberly's faith in him, not really.

He sighed. "I don't think anybody would believe me if I told," he admitted. "But it's... very different from here."

She seemed to accept that, so he changed the subject. "This kind of thing, with the slave traders, does it happen often?"

"No. Most of them have learned our routes by now and know to avoid them. And the ones that don't, well, you heard what happened."

He had, but he still didn't quite believe it. Even thinking all the way back to the dark days when he'd been Rita's evil Green Ranger, he'd never seriously considered the idea that Jason could be a real threat to, well, anything. The guy was just too good at heart, a big softy, a shining example of all that Zordon and the Power Rangers stood for.

But that was a different Jason, as he'd been forcibly reminded today. This Jason was a product of another world. This one fought dirty when he had to and killed his enemies when he could, because in this world it was the only way to be sure of victory.

Tommy wondered if this Earth had once had a Zordon, if it had had Power Rangers. Somehow he knew it did not have those things now.

Since he could not ask her the questions he really wanted to ask, he asked, "Where were they taking those people?"

"They have their own strongholds, out there. I don't know how they survive, but they do. I guess it's because slavery's been illegal since the End, so they come out here because they can't get away with it anywhere else." She sighed and set down her mug. "We destroy their 'holds when we find them, but it never seems like enough. There're always people we can't save, and there's always more scum to keep the trade going." Another sigh. "Jason's going to be hell to deal with after this. He doesn't handle it well when he has to..." she trailed off sadly.

Tommy almost resisted the automatic urge to wrap an arm around her shoulders and pull her close, but she really looked in need of a friend so he did it anyway. She leaned into him, resting her head against his shoulder, and he tried not to think about how natural it felt to sit together like that. It reminded him too much of another time, another place, another Kimberly, and that threatened to give him a headache.

Not for the first time, he found himself wondering about this mysterious End that she sometimes mentioned. Nobody else spoke of it at all, and if he asked all he could get out of anyone was that it was something that had happened nearly 150 years before his arrival. And no one at all talked about how it had come to have that name, or what had existed before the End. It seemed very odd to him to begin with the ending like that, but no one in the 'Hold seemed willing to question it, not even Billy. It was simply the way things were, and there was nothing he could do about that.

So he let that bit of curiosity go for now. And he let go, too, of the shock and pain of knowing that in this world, Jason Lee Scott was a man who killed his enemies and could only dream of a better path. He would have time to deal with all of that later - and he realized suddenly that he would take care of it. But right now, Kimberly needed a friend, so he would content himself with giving her a shoulder to lean on and watching the day come to an end.

The rest could wait.


End file.
